Tests positive rates are at an all-time low in Kenya as preparations are made for millions of citizens to travel for the festive season. Slightly more than six people are positive for every hundred tests analysed in the national laboratories.
Not only tourists, but also poor people and emigrants in the big cities who will return to spend Christmas and New Year with relatives in their home villages. It is to them that the government is appealing, as well as to all operators in the transport sector, to respect rules and protocols and not allow the freedom granted during this period to turn into total disregard and lead to more infections. So far, judging by the numbers, the increase has not yet occurred, especially in the regions that welcome those moving from the capital Nairobi to other counties of the Rift Valley and the North.
A little more problematic is the situation in the coastal region, where Mombasa and Kilifi have a few more symptomatic people who have had to resort to swabbing, although the emergency of recent days seems for now to be over. The number of tests carried out in any case in this period should increase, but instead they are always very few. Scattered strikes by health personnel and a lack of test tubes and reagents in various parts of the country are making the checks less and less timely.
In the last 24 hours, 390 people reported positive results from 6277 Covid-19 tests, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 94,151.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health indicated that 285 patients have been discharged, bringing the number of cures to 75,559.
242 of them were discharged from the home care programme, while 43 came from various medical facilities in the country.
Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe, speaking at Afya House in Nairobi, announced the death of four more people from the virus. The national total since the start of the pandemic stands at 1633.
The distribution of cases in the country in the latest round of swabbing was as follows; Nairobi 103, Mombasa 50, Nakuru 48, Kitui 27, Embu 20, Kilifi 15, Migori 13, Uasin Gishu and Laikipia 12, Murang'a 11, Kiambu 10 and Isiolo 10, Meru 9, Kakamega 8, Baringo 6, Busia, Nandi, Machakos and Garissa 4, Kisumu and Trans Nzoia 3, Siaya 2, Makueni, Homa Bay, Taita Taveta, Kisii, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Bungoma, Homa Bay, Vihiga and Kajiado 1.
A total of 844 patients are still in various health facilities in the country, while another 5,916 are in isolation and home care. 52 patients are currently in intensive care units (ICUs), 24 of whom are on ventilatory support, 25 on supplementary oxygen and 3 on observation.